Recipe for a mediocre sequel:

2) Jump scares. The original had none because of the great story/plot
which gave the entire film a terrifying & unnerving feel. This sequel
is so cheesy and pretentious that in order to call itself a horror film
there needs to be long quiet pauses followed by doors slamming or
monsters making loud noises causing the audience jump.

3) "3D"... throw in some scenes where swords thrust out toward the
audience even though this kind of gimmicky nonsense breaks any feel of
authenticity the movie might have had, even when watching it without
the 3D glasses.

4) Flavor of the week actor(s)... Kit Harrington from the popular HBO
series "Game of Thrones" is supposedly a high school student along with
the main character, but unfortunately he looks (and is) 26 years old...
he just feels out of place throughout the film.

I really enjoyed the original (as well as the games) and wanted this
one to be good as well. Unfortunately Silent Hill: Revelation sets out
to do two things: A) Continue the story SOMEWHAT from the first film to
satisfy Silent Hill fans while having characters reveal story lines
piece by piece in "plot dumps" that seem forced and out of place. B)
Try to make as much money as the original, but with a terrible script,
less money, and MUCH less passion.

Was the above review useful to you?

90 out of 123 people found the following review useful:

Too Short, Underdeveloped

The first half of the film was great. It was creepy, it was
suspenseful, and it was almost scary (speaking as someone who considers
most scary films to be dull and silly). The film did a good job of
summarizing the first, and the 3D was generally well-done. So where did
this film fail? Well first, the character relationships were extremely
superficial, to the point where it felt like they were tacked-on or
unrealistic. Some of the character motivations were also underdeveloped
and made the characters come off as stupid or just hard to relate to,
especially towards the end. The characters take a while to actually
enter Silent Hill, and when they do the film quickly devolves from
creepy moments to explaining the story, which is not particularly
compelling. Obviously, the film makers had to work within the context
of the original while trying to tie it into the third game, but so much
of the film was devoted to characters explaining the plot that it made
the film feel somewhat dull. Think of the old adage "show, don't tell".
The film was overly short, and it seemed as though this was the central
problem. 20 more minutes to SHOW the plot, interspersed with a few more
creepy scenes, and this film could have easily surpassed the original.
Alas, the director chose to keep the film succinct, and the result is
that it feels rushed and the last ten or fifteen minutes feel more like
a cheesy action movie than a horror film. As I said, with twenty more
minutes of footage, the film could have easily been one of the scariest
movies of the last 10 years, and could have had believable characters
and a more expertly revealed plot. Instead, we're left with a decent
movie with a few good scares.

Was the above review useful to you?

86 out of 121 people found the following review useful:

What's with all the 1 Star votes?

Yea, so this movie wasn't exactly stellar, but I can't understand why
there are so many 1 star votes for this film. I just got around to
seeing this movie last night and it certainly wasn't the worst film
I've ever seen, but reading some of the reviews around here (and on the
critic sites) one would think this film is just a steaming pile of
poop.

Well, it wasn't. The acting was decent, and I thought the lead was
reasonably good. There were more "jump scares" than I would've
expected, since the real horror of the games stems from atmosphere and
a feeling of isolation. The monsters and CGI were passable - not great
by certainly not bad by any means. The 3D was actually VERY good (maybe
the best I've seen), though there were a couple of times that the use
of the 3D was pretty cliché (think knives COMING RIGHT FOR YOU!!!). The
only real gripe I had was with the scripting/story. I was impressed
that the plot stayed as true to the games as it did, while still
meshing well with the story from the first movie. I'm sure this was no
easy task, but the amount of story they crammed into this film was too
much considering the runtime of the movie. The exposition dialogue was
REALLY cheesy at times, but I can understand the need for such when
considering probably half of the target audience will have never played
the games. I just would've hired a better writer.

TL;DR: Not as bad as the critics say, but certainly not the film I was
hoping this to be. Worth the price of admission for 3D, as it's really
well done.

Was the above review useful to you?

82 out of 120 people found the following review useful:

Stop... Please, just stop.

I'm going to forget for a second that I've played Silent Hill, I'm
going to switch off my brain and look at this film as a standalone
project, a generic horror film about a creepy town called Silent Hill.

And as somebody who has forgotten all knowledge of the game series that
this film is based on, it would be nice if the film itself could fill
me in on the situation a little, instead of throwing 3d effects at the
screen and trying (Poorly) to relay a story that makes so little sense
that it almost becomes funny.

Things happen for no reason and have little build-up or explanation,
and it isn't too enjoyable thanks to the hokey acting from the majority
of the cast, even stars like Sean Bean and Kit Harington turned in
mediocre performances, though with the writing the way it was one can't
exactly blame them.

Now as someone who has seen the first film, this "sequel" (With the
most original sequel name ever might I add) has little to do with the
first. Sure it is set in the same place and some situations are
repeated but it doesn't continue the flow of the first, nor does it
follow any of the momentum. The first ended in a bitter way that held
no real place for a sequel to come in, so this whole film just seems
tacked on for some extra cash.

But I'm sure the real problem here is the shameless butchering of
source material.

If this film went under any other name or concept, it would be a badly
acted straight to DVD movie that only plays on the Sci-fi channels, but
because of the capitalisation on the name "Silent Hill" and the
intellectual property of its creators, this film has been given a free
pass, a pass which it did not use wisely.

Once again, without any spoilers, it is safe to say that this film does
nothing in the ways of conveying the moods and feelings of any of the
original games, nor does it try to follow any of their stories, which
would be just fine if they didn't spend every other minute shoving fan-
service in my face, as if to say "Look! Remember this from the game? So
do we! Take a good long look at it!"

Worst of all, the little nods that it gives to the game series are such
big parts of the plot that you cannot ignore the fact that they are
being used completely out of context, and it gets avid gamers like me
really mad.

All in all, newcomers to the series who like horror films will have a
tough time understanding it, people who enjoyed the first film will
probably lose interest fast, and anyone who has played the games will
spend the entire film sitting in frustration. It is an unpleasant
experience, and I would recommend that nobody watches this, not even to
see how bad it is, because I don't think the Silent Hill community will
be very pleased with another sequel.

Was the above review useful to you?

70 out of 106 people found the following review useful:

Should have been called Silent Snooze

I absolutely love the first Silent Hill film. The flashbacks
(reminiscent of how one learns the back-story in a video game) were
chilling and unveiled a haunting past for little Rose/Alessa. So I went
into the sequel with anticipation and an open mind, but honestly...the
best part of this movie was the opening credits, which did look pretty
awesome in 3D. Everything after that was just boring as heck.

The storyline just seemed to move at a snail's pace. Plus the movie
relied more on startle tactics instead of horror and gross out factor
like the first. The new monsters did a lot of screaming and little
else. The older ones we've previously seen were treated like
domesticated livestock. And all I got of my favorite character (Rose)
was a 10 second exchange with another character and dialog straight out
of a 1.99 Harlequin Romance novel. Ugh! I actually had to wake myself
up in the middle of this film. The only other time I've fallen asleep
was back in the 90's with Blue Chips. It'd be a toss up as to which I'd
be willing to sit through again. Oh, and the gal was NOT as good or
creepy as the original Alessa/Sharon kid. Could they not afford to hire
that one back again or something?

And I really think it was the wrong move to go with a film so dedicated
to the video game. Tossing out things like magical totems and demon
gods...it just didn't translate to film well. The first one made sense
without having to have played the game. The plot for this one seemed
too B-movie, especially if you weren't a player.

Was the above review useful to you?

71 out of 112 people found the following review useful:

I wanted to like it

I went into Silent Hill: Revelation hoping to be proved wrong. Sure, I
knew the move was going to be a bit gimmicky (being shot in 3D and
all), and the trailers hadn't looked too promising, but as a fan of the
Silent Hill series, I thought that maybe I'd still enjoy the film.
Unfortunately, this movie is riddled with so many flaws and defects
that it completely falls flat.

The movie is based on the third silent hill game, following Heather
Mason as she tries to learn more about her past but more importantly
just survive as a series of nightmarish events draw to Silent Hill. The
movie tries to follow the plot of the game, but deviates frequently in
ways that make little sense. The game's plot was already somewhat
muddled and disjointed, and its translation into a screenplay has only
made the plot more nonsensical and difficult to follow. Events seem to
occur at random, characters are left underdeveloped, and there is no
logical progression to the story. The film flounders around for a bit
before leaving viewers with an unsatisfactory climax which tapers off
with an awkward closing scene.

The acting is pretty poor, and the screenplay isn't much better.
Dialogue is stilted and awkward. Carrie-Anne Moss and Kit Harington in
particularly do a very poor job of delivering their lines, and are
completely unconvincing. To be fair, Sean Bean and Adelaide Clemens do
a half-way decent job considering the lines they are given. But overall
the acting and writing are both beneath what you would expect from your
run-of-the-mill horror flick.

The special effects are pretty well done, and the 3D does make for some
interesting moments. Silent Hill's iconic falling ash and dense fog in
particular benefit from this treatment. Most of the time though, the 3D
is just used to amplify the movies considerable gore. While the special
effects are pretty solid, they just don't make up for the poor plot and
dialogue which really are sub-par, even by horror movie standards.

I really wanted to like this movie, but even as a fan of the material I
found myself unable to appreciate it. My advice is to save your money
and rent it when it comes out on DVD.

Was the above review useful to you?

68 out of 114 people found the following review useful:

Satisfying for fans of the original, but missing that SH touch

I went into Silent Hill Revelation with high expectations. I liked the
original film for its having successfully captured the feel of the
original games, even if it wasn't terribly accurate to the actual plot
of the game. I wasn't too happy that they skipped adapting Silent Hill
2, but I'll take what I can get for SH adaptations. Although I felt I
got my money's worth, I wasn't as mesmerized by the film as I thought I
would.

Revelation's story is a mixed bag. The film is a bizarre hybrid of both
the first movie's and the game's canon, but it does a good job of tying
the various threads together into a coherent plot. If you liked the
original film's straight-forward take on the cult of Silent Hill and
Alessa, you'll like this one. It may be missing a lot of the subtlety,
but the core story is still enjoyable. However, a large amount of the
dialogue is really awkward and sometimes even wince-inducing. Tidying
up the dialogue and making it feel more natural would have made a
noticeable difference in the final film. Overall, the story and
dialogue were better in the original movie.

If you're looking for a straight adaptation of Silent Hill 3, look
elsewhere. Characters have their personality and role shifted, plot
twists are removed and added, and there are a whole lot of "Wait, that
never happened in the game!" moments. I would describe this film as
being "inspired" by the original game, as it really only covers the
most important details of the original plot. However, there are a lot
of clever references to the original game and to entries throughout the
series that will doubtlessly please the Silent Hill addict.

Silent Hill Revelations carries over a flaw from the original in that
it is absolutely obsessed with the black magic and demonic side of
Silent Hill and downplays the psychological and surreal elements of the
original games. The dream-like feeling that the original games inspired
in players is mostly gone, even more-so than the first. However, this
does in some ways create a more exciting film and lends itself well to
some visceral chase sequences and graphic fights with the monsters of
everyone's favorite hell-hole.

However, many of these changes are understandable. The original game
thrived on atmosphere and bombarded the player with cryptic notes and
bizarre occurrences as they solved puzzles and fought monsters. Film is
a very different medium from video-games, so logically a lot of things
had to be changed to create a story that would fit the pacing of a
film. As a result, I don't have too many hard feelings about the
changes made to the story.

The acting side of things is fairly positive. Adelaide Clemens does a
fantastic job as Heather. She looks exactly like Heather did in the
game and delivers a performance that makes Heather into a much more
likable character. Sean Bean gives a decent but underutilized
performance as Harry. Kit Harington is by far the weakest link in the
cast in his awkward portrayal of a high-school aged Vincent. The rest
of the cast give decent, if not extraordinary performances.

Visually, the film is better than you'd expect. They slashed the budget
to less than half of the original's, but the film still looks pretty
good. Monster costuming is phenomenal just like the first. The
cinematography is fairly good and does a good job of drawing you into
the film, even if the first film was better in this regard. The more
large-scale visual effects and a few of the monsters are obviously CGI,
but it's not too distracting.

The 3D in the film is alright, but not necessary by any means. There's
some decent depth, a few cool pop-out moments, and overall it improves
the look of the film, but it's hardly revolutionary. Although it is a
cash-in, I respect the fact that they went to the trouble to film it in
3D instead of using a post-production job. If you decide to see this
film, I'd recommend shelling out the extra few bucks to see it in 3D,
as I feel it earns the up-charge.

If you liked the first film, I'd definitely recommend this film. If
you're in the market for an entertaining horror film this Halloween,
there are worse ways to spend your money. Silent Hill fans will have
fun, as long as they aren't too picky over the particulars of the
original plot. If you were displeased by the original or perhaps
haven't even seen it, I'd advise passing on this one, but for everyone
else I'd give this film a thumbs up.

Was the above review useful to you?

38 out of 59 people found the following review useful:

Didn't feel like watching a movie. I don't know what it is.

Now I'm okay with movies that didn't follow exactly like the original
plot from games, books, etc like the first Silent Hill movie, I think
it is still fine. But this one is just BAD. I'm not sure what I was
watching but I didn't feel like I was watching a full movie. It just
lack of many things. Maybe it's too short, maybe Silent Hill 3 is just
not suitable to be made into a movie because the story is all about
Heather trying to find the truth about herself, and since we already
knew that at the beginning, what is there to tell anymore? And we as an
audience already knew how her father is doing, only Heather didn't
know, again there's nothing to look forward too. We just merely
watching Heather going from point A to B and nothing else. It is that
dull and plain.

And the horror? the movie is trying too hard to be creepy. What's with
all the pointless close up of meat cutting and bloody mouthful eating.
I don't know it just didn't work for me.

Was the above review useful to you?

45 out of 75 people found the following review useful:

Gives Silent Hill a bad name. (spoilers).

DO NOT make another Silent Hill Movie Ever.... Revelations was so
bad.... you are better off making movies that are not silent hill
because you cant even begin to come close to what Silent Hill really
is.... And DO NOT take Silent Hill 2's story and turn it into one of
your piece of crap movies.... YOU ARE BUTCHERING THE SERIES!!! You have
literally ruined one of my favorite video game series. And if you dare
try to introduce Your Harry Mason character into the Silent Hill 2
Story as James Sunderland and make Harrys Non existent wife as Mary
Sunderland You will literally upset every Silent Hill Fan in the
World... You had to have seen what happened when they Made the HD
remake of Silent Hill 2 and screwed up the voice acting.... The Fans
will be on your case. Also don't connect Travis Grady to a story that
he doesn't even belong to. Also one more thing... If Murphy Pendleton
is on that Prisoner Escort Bus.... I will literally flip out...

Sincerely from one of Silent Hills greatest Fans

Michael Harbin

Was the above review useful to you?

44 out of 81 people found the following review useful:

A Truly Dreadful Waste of Time ... Don;t waste your time even for free

No Story No Style No Atmosphere No Suspense Awful Effects Edited with a
hatchet by the looks of it Directed and written ( ? ) by someones with
no talent who should go work in Walmart The first Silent Hill was made
by someone with talent and imagination ... It created a unique and
visually stylish world This thing lacks all of that ... In fact it
lacks most things needed to make something a film This looks like some
random scenes thrown together by the syfy channel as a trailer for some
film that someone else should have made Absolutely atrocious ... I want
the 90 minutes of my life back that I wasted watching this nonevent
Burn Hollywood ... Burn